Dauntless Ahri

"The 2015 competitive season is about to begin, which means the climb to become world champions begins yet again! We're kicking off the 2015 competitive season with Dauntless Ahri!

It's a new season, which means all kinds of new beginnings - learning a new role or champion, playing with new teams, learning all of the changes.

It also means bettering yourself as a player - Improve your skills, excel in your main role, rank up higher than you ever have before.

Whether this is your first season, or your fifth, become a legend this season.

Dauntless Ahri will be 975 RP, and includes:

A new recall animation!

New model and texture!

New particles! Note: Some particles could not be changed due to gameplay clarity. Her orb will remain the same colors. Her charm will remain the same.

Dauntless Ahri is now available to play on PBE! We always find bug reports and feedback super helpful, so feel free to comment in the thread below! Likewise, if you've got any questions, post 'em here, and we'll do our best to answer them!"

"Let me try to explain Dauntless a bit better. It's the antithesis of Championship. So, Championship Shyvana celebrates the end of the season, Dauntless Ahri is celebrating the start of the season. :]"

Alistar visual update

"Move aside and witness Alistar, the Minotaur, in his new and updated form!

Known for his ability to change the shape of a teamfight, you can now spot this cow trampling in with his shape changing form! It's behoove of me to tell you what you can expect to see, so read up if you find yourself locking horns with the bull at any point! His model and textures are all sparkly and brand new, and his animations are tweaked a bit to make him run and look better on the fields. In addition, we've also given his ult a spitshine, so you'll see some nice shields here instead of... uh... spiky... things. His skins are receiving the same treatment as well, so be sure not to miss those as well*.

Some questions to keep in mind as you take a look at the new models!

Does this still read as Alistar to you?

Does the new Unbreakable Will still communicate the effect?

Do you feel anything important to you was missed during this update?

We'd really appreciate it if you'd take a look at Alistar, and headbutt us with any bugs and feedback that come your way. Your feedback helps to guide changes we can make, as well as helps us grow as a team.

*Sweeper Alistar was fairly recent, so it did not receive larger updates."

"Great question! I suggest you read this devblog for more context behind the smaller updates! tl;dr: We get to affect a broader amount of content."

Let's stampede on into a better look at this visual updates:

Alistar

Here's a short video of the new run animation and R visual effects:

Black Alistar

Golden Alistar

Matador Alistar

Longhorn Alistar

Unchained Alistar

Infernal Alistar

Here's a video comparison between the old and new Alistar!

Misc

[Easter Egg] Following IEM San Jose, there are a few interesting search terms you can type into the shop to pull up "Guardian's Horn" - Golden Arm of Kobe, Golden Bicep of Kobe, Horn, Horn of the ManWolf, and ManWolf.

There is also a file mentioning "HudSkin(HUD2015)" in one of the game mutator files. Nothing much else to share, could just be a placeholder name for a future game mode hud.

Balance Changes

* Remember *: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical changes. The changes you see below may be lacking context or other accompanying changes that didn't make it in - don't freak out! These are not official notes.

Items

Guardian's Horn [Howling Abyss Only]

HP increased to 200 from 180

Base Health Regen increased to 120% from 100%

Total priced reduced to 1015 from 1025

Poacher's Knife

[The tooltip now longer mentions +20 gold per large monster kill BUT it has received no functionality changes in game just yet.]

[NEW] Zz'Rot Portal

Zz'rot Portal, an item first seen during the last PBE cycle, has been readded to the game!

Summoner Spells

Smite

Smite now works on a charge (or ammo ) system. You gain one charge every 75 seconds (vs being able to cast it once every 60 seconds) and can hold up to two charges.

Tool tip now includes: "Smite regains a charge every 75 seconds, up to a maximum of 2 charges."

Recharge timer starts at 1:40

There is a 15 sec cooldown between casting Smites.

Gameplay

Howling Abyss Global Aura

Increased to 50% reduced healing effects on allies from 20%

Jungle

Ancient Krug

Movement speed increased to 310 from 285

Now has Gift of Heavy Hands. which stuns the attacking champion every few attacks. [The debuff wears off after 1 minute and 30 seconds after spawning.] Using Smite will "steal" this bonus from the camp.

Gromp

Base damage lowered to 65 from 90

Now has Gift of Toadstool which causes damage to champions who attack him over time. Using Smite will "steal" this bonus from the camp.